Plaque

(lost) Tower of London execution site - c.1910

Inscription

Site of the scaffold on which were executed Queen Anne Boleyn, Queen Katherine Howard, Lady Jane Grey & others.

This image came from Twitter via Londonist, and from the children's clothes must be about 1910.

2020: Terje Hartberg contacted us via Twitter directing us to this Flickr stream which has a photo of this plaque in 1939, from a different angle. The frame of the plaque has changed since the earlier photo but that's all. Thanks Terje.

Site: Tower of London execution site (5 memorials)

EC3, Tower Green, Tower of London

Members of royalty sentenced to death were spared the ordeal of public execution on Tower Hill. This spot, inside the very secure Tower of London, was reserved just for them, and apparently the executions took place under cover. Excavations have confirmed the existence of a building here.

But one also hears that Lady Jane Grey's prison windows looked out over Tower Green and that she must have seen her scaffold being erected, which would not have been the case had it been enclosed.

2017: Within a few weeks we came across not just one but two predecessors to the glass cushion which has been here since 2006. We're being very nerdish, publishing them as 'lost' memorials, even though the current location of one of them is actually known.

2023: We watched the 1946 short documentary film 'Prisoners of the Tower' from which we captured images of 2 other plaques at the site.

2023: Using Museum of London data Londonist have analysed the who, why, where, when and how of London executions. To see the more than 100 executees on London Remembers click here.

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This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Tower of London execution site - c.1910

Subjects commemorated i

Anne Boleyn

Second wife of Henry VIII and so Queen of England, 1533 to 1536.  Though marr...

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Lady Jane Grey

Married to Lord Guilford Dudley.  Her husband’s father persuaded the dying Ed...

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Catherine Howard

As lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves Catherine attracted Henry's ever-roving ...

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This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Tower of London execution site - c.1910

Also at this site i

Anne Boleyn beheaded - 1946

Anne Boleyn beheaded - 1946

This image comes from the 1946 short documentary film 'Prisoners of the Tower...

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Tower of London execution site

Tower of London execution site

Catling wrote the poem as well as creating the sculpture. Doesn't that cushio...

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Tower of London execution site - 1972

Tower of London execution site - 1972

In the first 2 minutes of the 1972 CCF film "The Boy Who Turned Yellow" some ...

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Tower scaffold - 1946

Tower scaffold - 1946

See Anne Boleyn's plaque for when/how this plaque was displayed.

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Nearby Memorials

Tony Meehan

Tony Meehan

W9, Lauderdale Road, 34 Lauderdale Mansions

Tony Meehan, 1943 - 2005, founder member of The Shadows, lived here 1977 - 2005. The Heritage Foundation

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Henrietta Barnett plaque

Henrietta Barnett plaque

NW11, South Square, 1

Prior to the death of her husband in 1913, Dame Henrietta Barnett had been living with him at St Jude's Cottage at Spaniard's Inn. On hi...

2 subjects commemorated
Whiteley Village - foundation stone

Whiteley Village - foundation stone

KT12, Whiteley Village

The Listing text says the statue and the relief are of copper, not the more usual bronze. The front of the plinth below the seated lady s...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Hatch End Station

Hatch End Station

HA5, Station Approach

This (Wrenish style) building by Gerald Horsley was built in 1911 on the site of the first station opened in August 1842. Harrow Heritage...

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Dorothy Richardson

Dorothy Richardson

WC1, Woburn Walk

The idea of this plaque may have originated in the 2015 journal article "Dorothy Richardson, Quakerism and 'Undoing': Reflections on the ...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators